What Canada should really exploit in the North

After an Algonquin elder welcomed a visiting delegation of politicians from the Northwest Territories to Ottawa at a reception held at the Chateau Laurier Wednesday night, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Minister John Duncan took the stage to praise his government’s own regulatory reforms.

But despite the strong aboriginal representation in the room — teeming with people wearing moosehide vests and Inuit furs — Duncan didn’t get any flak for the policies that, at least in part, sparked the Idle No More movement. He got impromptu applause.

Maybe it was mere politeness. Or maybe it was the half-dozen or so Conservative ministers, MPs and senators who cheered. But beneath that warm reception is a lesson Canada can learn from its often-overlooked northern territories as it struggles with the current disquiet over the place of aboriginal life in this country.

In the south, First Nations are a sideshow to the real conversations of the day, whether they are scary economic figures coming from this or that faraway country, the latest 24-hour political scandal — or whatever the Ikea monkey is up to these days.

Here, aboriginals can be dismissed, ignored and viewed from afar. When they force themselves into the national consciousness, they remain an outside power pushing in — leading many Canadians to interpret the situation by asking, “What do they want now?” usually followed by the brutally transactional response, “Don’t we give them enough money already?”

That’s not how people talk in the North. Yes, there are racists who demean aboriginal culture by pretending to be wannabe anthropologists and yapping about Stone Age societies. And yes, there are aboriginal spokespeople who defend policies out of synch with modern needs, whether they’re about hunting regulations or government transparency. The North has plenty of good old fashioned fights over aboriginal rights that lead to fierce words, protests and hurt feelings.

But for the most part, northerners work, mingle and enjoy life as one big family because they have to — and because it’s more fun that way. There, the aboriginal question, if there really even is one, is largely settled. It’s just day-to-day life.

The northern perspective is shaped by practical considerations — but also legal ones. The colonization of North America in the north happened much slower, much later and with a smaller footprint than anywhere in southern Canada, leaving aboriginal life intact in ways you don’t see in the south. Today, most land claims in the North are settled and self-governments are living and breathing entities, performing critical services for First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

It’s like an alternate universe compared to the grandiose calls for quasi-mythical nation-to-nation talks that some in the Idle No Movement are requesting down south.

Nation-to-nation talks? Been there, done that.

That’s not to say that First Nations and Métis in the provinces — who might be governed by century-old treaties they feel have been broken or have no land agreement at all — don’t have a reason to be angry at the way Ottawa has neglected them. It’s just important to remember that, in some parts of Canada, aboriginal-white relations are far more advanced and far more collegial.

Now, back to Duncan.

The economic bonanza the Harper government has been pressing for in the resource sector cuts right to the heart of the aboriginal situation. That has always been the case in the North — there, however, it’s been much more obvious and legally necessary. That’s why the region hasn’t been the same kind of venom when it comes to talk about regulatory reform.

But if Ottawa and the provincial capitals want their coffers filled with those sweet, sweet royalty dollars, and if big mining and petroleum firms want to turn Canada into the world’s resource backbone, they’re going to have to adapt to aboriginal demands and, in the end, their rights.

It’s not fair that we treat the aboriginal parts of this country like quarries when we feel like it — and promise in our great benevolence to bring them jobs and prosperity on our terms — without changing the rules on how we go about that on their terms.

That’s how the North works. The extractive sector has to play by rules laid out in land claims agreements, and generally has to play ball with local governments. Elsewhere in Canada — as Idle No more attests — the gulf between the corporate and aboriginal worlds seems much greater, though there are plenty of exceptions.

The Harper government has earned some of the ire it’s getting from First Nations. Legislation to introduce more private property ownership on reserves feels more like it came from Tom Flanagan’s brain than from any countrywide consultations. And the double-barrel omnibus budget bill body-slam of 2012 didn’t exactly get much vetting before it became the law of the land.

But in the North, consultation is a must. You don’t get far without framing future plans within the reality of shared life experiences between aboriginals and everyone else.

Before the south benefits from all the North’s minerals and petroleum, maybe we should focus on adopting its more sophisticated spirit of inclusivity, and realize that the practical reality that fosters it is a reality for the whole of Canada too.